Lewis's Estate
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Lewis's Estate, 231 Pa. 60 (Pa. 1911)
79 A. 921; 1911 Pa. LEXIS 791
Brown, Elkin, Mestrezat, Moschzisker, Potter
Lewis's Estate
Opinion of the Court
The widow of the testator, for whose benefit he created the trust which she and their only surviving child wish to have terminated, is still alive. Who will be the ultimate distributees of the fund under the-will of her husband cannot be determined until her death, and the court below could not have made a decree terminating the trust without the consent of all parties in interest. Such parties were not before it, for some who may ultimately participate in the fund may not yet be in existence.
Decree affirmed at appellants’ costs.
Reference
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- Status
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- Syllabus
- Wills — Decedents’ estates — Trusts and trustees — Termination of trust— Remainders. 1. Where a testator creates a trust for the benefit of his widow in such a way that the ultimate distributees of the fund cannot be determined until after her death, the widow and only surviving child are not entitled to a decree terminating the trust at a time when some of the parties who may ultimately participate in the fund may not yet be in existence. 2. Testator died leaving to survive him a widow and four children. By his will he created a trust of the residue of his estate for his widow for life, and upon her death directed the trustee to divide the corpus into four equal parts, and to pay one part thereof to each of his four children, “if living, or to the issue of such of my children as may then be deceased.” After the testator’s death three of the children died intestate without issue. Subsequently the widow and the other child, a son having two children living, presented a petition to the orphans’ court for a decree terminating the trust. Held, that the orphans’ court committed no error in dismissing the petition.